They
could match your Microsoft Product Code to the applications you
install, creating a dossier. Or they could build a database of
“typical” or “trending” applications. Or they could ignore
all that useful information and just help you avoid malware.
Microsoft
denies Windows 8 app spying via SmartScreen
August 24, 2012 by Dissent
Iain Thomson reports:
Microsoft has
moved to quell fears that Windows 8 is building up a detailed record
of all applications stored on client machines via its SmartScreen
application.
An analysis by
security researcher Nadim Kobeissi noticed a potential privacy
violation in Windows 8′s SmartScreen system, which checks
applications that the user wants to install against a database of
known dodgy code and warns the user if Redmond’s records suggest
there may be a problem.
Read more about the researcher’s
claims and Microsoft’s response on The
Register.
In other Microsoft news, David
Burt writes that he has uploaded a two-page Issue Backgrounder on
Microsoft’s revised privacy statements. You can download that
here.
Why would this surprise anyone? And it
is probably “secret” only in the sense that they have not held a
press conference explaining it in detail. You could as my Data
Mining students why any candidate should be doing this – I'm trying
to train them to answer such questions without sounding too
condescending.
AP
uncovers secret data-mining by Romney campaign
August 24, 2012 by Dissent
Jack Gillum reports:
Building upon its
fundraising prowess, Mitt Romney’s campaign began a secretive
data-mining project this summer to trove through Americans’
personal information — including their purchasing history and
church attendance — to identify new and likely wealthy donors, The
Associated Press has learned…. For Romney’s data-mining project,
which began as early as June, the Republican candidate quietly turned
to a little-known but successful analytics firm that previously
performed marketing work for a colleague tied to Bain & Co., the
management-consulting firm that Romney once led.
Read the AP report on AP.
Secure(?)
communications?
You may think that sending an IM or an
e-mail is private or secure, but at the end of the day, these can be
forwarded, archived, copied and pasted, or viewed in history. DueIM
is a simple website that negates all this by letting you send
password-protected messages that are instantly deleted after they are
read.
Fortunately,
I have some lawyer friends (shocking, I know.) who can explain these
verdicts to me.
What
the Apple v. Samsung
Verdict Means for the Rest of Us
The jury in the landmark intellectual
property case Apple v. Samsung ruled overwhelmingly in favor
of Apple on Friday, awarding the iPhone maker
approximately
$1.05 billion in damages. Although that figure is
impressive on its own, the jury’s Apple-friendly design and utility
patent rulings could have an even larger effect on the mobile
industry and the world’s consumers. That means you.
Samsung was quick to issue a comment to
that effect. “Today’s verdict should not be viewed as a win for
Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer,” Samsung said in an
official statement. “It will lead to fewer choices, less
innovation, and potentially higher prices.”
(Related)
South
Korean Court Rules Apple and Samsung Both Owe One Another Damages
Apple and Samsung’s international
courtroom tribulations took a slight turn for the worse for all
parties involved Friday. A South Korean court ruled that both
companies infringed on one another’s intellectual property and owe
each other damages.
The Seoul
Central District Court ruled that Samsung violated one of Apple’s
utility patents, over the so-called the “bounce-back” effect and
slide-to-unlock features in iOS, and that Apple was in violation of
two of Samsung’s wireless patents. Apple’s
claims that Samsung copied the designs of the iPhone and iPad were
denied.
For my Business Continuation students.
Apparently, the city owns the power buses...
"On Aug. 23, Mayor Mike McGinn
of Seattle informed residents that the city would
partially shut down its municipal data center for five days
including the Labor Day weekend. As a result, city
residents will be unable to pay bills, apply for business licenses,
or take advantage of other online services. In a
Webcast press conference, McGinn isolated the issue as a failure in
one of the electrical 'buses' that supplies power to the data center.
Because that piece of equipment began overheating, the city had to
begin taking servers and applications offline to prevent overloading
the system. The maintenance will cost the city $2.1 million of its
maintenance budget. A second power bus will remain operational,
supplying enough electricity to power redundant systems for critical
life and fire safety systems, including 911 services and fire
dispatch. The city's Web sites should also be up and running in some
capacity."
This
is good enough for the President of the United States. I think with
a little effort, we could make it work to poll students?
'We
the People' goes open-source
The Obama administration's "We
the People" online petitions platform has been open-sourced,
allowing other individuals or groups to tailor the system for their
own use.
The "We thePeople" code was
released under the GNU General Public License yesterday, and is now
available on GitHub.
Online video, the new Homework!
If you are a fan of TED Talks or Khan
Academy, you may know that there are other websites which offers
engaging talks, lectures, and presentations. Keen Talks is another
one that curates the knowledge of the web, touching on a broad range
of topics categorized by subject area and speaker.
… What’s most interesting about
Keen Talks is that its collection covers from various sources,
compared to TED Talks where you are only limited with TED’s
material. It also goes beyond the lecture and speech format, as you
can also watch the best conferences, debates, and interviews.
Similar Tools: Khan
Academy, Talkminer,
and Academic Earth
My
students keep asking if I have Skype installed. Perhaps they have
moved beyond the phone and email? Why would I need to see them (or
them, me) to answer questions?
In the age of Yahoo IM!, Skype, Google
Chats, instant messaging and video chat are hardly a big deal for
most computer and Internet savvy users. But the cross platform
application, QuicklyChat
aims to make video connections more instant but with a feature for
warding off interruptions when users are busy.
QuicklyChat
works almost like a walkie-talky, but with video, in that users can
keep it open while at their computers, and when a co-worker wants to
talk it’s a simple matter of inviting a user for a chat, rather
than say walking to his or her office down the hall.
QuicklyChat
works on Mac and PC, and requires a quick registration.
… QuicklyChat was released this
August and will be available for free in beta for a couple of months
or more.
Teachifying
stuff I find interesting...
...The
California State University system – the
largest public university system in the U.S. – is outsourcing its
online education offerings to Pearson.
...Jon Becker and I have rolled out the
first draft – hey, let’s call it a launch! – of our collection
Hack(ing)
School(ing).
...SkilledUp
officially opened its doors this week. The startup offers a directory
of more than 40,000 online courses from over 200 providers, organized
in such a way to make it easier to find what you’re looking for:
price, course direction, instructor, and so on.
...It’s 2012 and college students
still don’t like digital textbooks. More details
from The
Chronicle of Higher Education.
...The
Beloit Mindset List – what the Class of 2016 has
“always known.” [Humor? Bob]
Dilbert
explains why I have cut the price of this blog by 50%
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